A little bit Hollywood

I’ve been at Magnum Workshops Fremantle the past week, under the tutelage of the wonderful Antoine D’Agata. It has been an intense week, of non-stop shooting, editing, and plenty of conversation with Antoine and workshop mates. Five days on the brink of nirvana means I have plenty of thinking to do, digesting everything I’ve learnt and turning it over in my head and photography practice, trying to make sense of it in the context of my present life and plans for the future.
I don’t know if I will ever manage to tease any of it out logically enough to blog about. Some of the realisations made during the course are very personal and probably don’t belong on this blog. But I can say this: it was every bit as wonderful as the Workshops were for me, back in 2010. I was pushed hard, questioned soundly about why it is I do what I do, got my arse kicked, and I wish, more than anything, there was an option of going back for more. I’ve grown more in one week than I could ever have in the past 2 years. This year I was also one of three scholarship winners – which means my place at the Workshops was courtesy FotoFreo, and the WA Dept of Culture and the Arts. I’m pretty chuffed about that. It’s a wonderful feeling to have won.

It’s all loosely tied to the image above. As a Magnum Workshop attendee, I had the opportunity to borrow one of 3 Leica M9s for an afternoon.

Had a heap of fun and shot a lot of crap. The picture at the head of this post was the only one i got out of a couple of hundred shots, that came out properly exposed, and (*gasp*) in focus (self portraits don’t count). It’s a little bit Hollywood, and encapsulates perfectly how I’ve felt all week long. It’s not everyday I get to meet, greet and hang around photographers at the top of their game. I’ve been a teeny bit star struck.

Comments 11

Hehe, no, no Leica for me. Now that I’ve discovered this getting over oneself business also means not letting the equipment get in the way, I’m pretty happy. Not that I’d say no to the X-Pro 1 though 😉